Cobbles-Tech: Et tu, Pippo? Pozzato’s Paris-Roubaix Focus

Jered Gruber snapped some pictures of the Katusha Focus fleet, and this one obviously caught our attention. It’s neither an Izalco nor a Cayo, both of which were in use at Roubaix.

Photo By Jered Gruber

The drops, the stays, the cable routing – none of them seem quite right for a Focus – or certainly not a carbon one. Also curious is the interface between the down tube and head tube – is there a just noticeable bulge that comes from joining a larger down tube to a headtube that’s slightly smaller? Our guess? Could be custom carbon, but given all of the other cases we’ve seen, it’s more likely we’re seeing another top pro riding an aluminum frame.

When a group of us visited Ridley in '09, they said that Pipo was the only one riding a Damocles. He requires an extra long top tube, and it's the only one in their fleet that can be customized at some level.

Maybe Focus is hiring out production of Pipo's bikes? Or maybe re-branding somebody else's? Or maybe it's aluminum?